


Stars and Butterflies

by Gwendolynn_C



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: 2100 words of sadness fixed by fluff, Cuddling, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Implied mental illness, M/M, Marius and Cosette are in a relationship and Marius and Courfeyrac get a bit romantic, Marius/Cosette/Courfeyrac if this was longer, Modern AU, Platonic Romance, Pre-Relationship, baths, demi boy Marius Pontmercy, platonic baths, questioning gender, think of it as pre MC squared
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-24
Updated: 2016-02-24
Packaged: 2018-05-23 01:12:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6099987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gwendolynn_C/pseuds/Gwendolynn_C
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I'm feeling sad so I wrote a sad Marius and a sad Courfeyrac who cheer each other up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stars and Butterflies

Marius wakes up with the sun like most mornings. Unlike most mornings, he squints against the light streaming through the thin curtains and falls back asleep. His consciousness resurfaces but seems to have left his body behind; his limbs feel pinned to the mattress. Groaning, he turns on his side and helpful thoughts pierce through the fog in his brain.

 _Get up._ His mind tells him. _You need to pee. You should also eat. And maybe go for a walk or at least do some stretches, you’ll probably feel a lot better after that. You should help Courfeyrac out and do the laundry today, maybe even scrub the toilet. You could do all that in just a couple hours if you tried._

He adjusts his position again so he can better ignore his bladder and falls back asleep.

When Marius wakes up again his face feels gritty. He thinks about wiping his hand over his face but doesn’t. He grabs his phone and checks the time, its half past two in the afternoon. His phone has 2% battery and he should plug it in. He should also text someone, he’s supposed to text someone when he feels this way. He lets his phone die.

Éponine is great at a lot of things but not at this kind of thing and she has her own shit to deal with. Courfeyrac is spending the summer working at a prestigious law firm and it’s so awful that not even Courfeyrac can put a happy spin on it. He doesn’t need Marius bothering him on top of all that stress. Cosette is out of town with her Father, they’re visiting the convent Cosette was raised in and helping out with their annual summer camp. She doesn’t want to hear about her boyfriend having a blue day.

Cosette. Marius misses her immensely. She posted some selfies on Instagram the other day and she’d dyed the tips of her dark hair a pale pink. His mind drifts through thoughts of her and related things: her wide smile that shows off the gap in her teeth; the feel and smell of freshly laundered cotton shirts; the way her eyes shine when she laughed; Queen Anne’s Lace and tulips and Gerber daisies; her shoulders, soft and smooth and dusted with freckles and the way she would kiss him and cuddle him if she was here right now. He falls back asleep thinking about her.

When Marius wakes again, he pulls himself out of bed and stumbles into the bathroom. He uses the toilet, brushes his teeth and imagines making some toast and tea and spending the rest of the day on the balcony, breathing fresh air. On the way out of the bathroom he catches sight of his bed and crawls back in. Sleep claims him again.

He wakes up when he hears noises from the kitchen. Courfeyrac must be home. Marius gets out of bed for him. Courfeyrac is leaning against the counter with his back to Marius’s bedroom but Marius can tell from the way that his friend’s shoulders are shaking that Courfeyrac is crying. Marius makes a noise and enters the kitchen. Courfeyrac jumps and turns, wiping at his eyes but still frowning.

“Marius, how was your day?”

“I haven’t really been out of bed.”

Courfeyrac looks him over, head to toe and nods once. “I’ll make us some dinner.”

Marius sits quietly at the table, memorizing the grain of wood. His brain is being helpful again, reminding him that it’s polite to make conversation or at least to offer to help with dinner, telling him to try and cheer Courfeyrac up. He stays quiet.

Courfeyrac is some kind of demigod. He makes soup out of chicken broth, vegetables and egg. It’s better than chicken noodle soup because there’s no weird overly soft noodles or chunks of pulverized chicken. It’s delicious and comforting and fills his stomach.

When Courfeyrac stands to put their dishes in the sink, Marius follows him and hugs him from behind. Courfeyrac turns, presses his face against the side of Marius’ neck and begins to shake. Marius can feel the tears against his skin and simply rubs his friend’s back. They have a nice arrangement the two of them: when one is having a bad day, the other helps out. Marius thinks this may be the first time they’ve both had a bad day on the same day. But so far it’s not so bad, kind of like how two drunk friends helping each other home can sometimes find an adventure. They’re just two sad friends helping each other through.

“I still have one bath bomb leftover from my last shopping trip.” Marius offers once Courfeyrac has calmed down a bit.

Courfeyrac lets out a long, uneven breath and pulls away. He’s making a fake smile but he doesn’t know how fake smiles deeply hurt Marius’ feelings. “Yeah, you go have a bath. I’ll…”

“We can share it.” Marius insists giving him a real smile. “Come on, it’s that pretty one I know you like. Cosette and I share baths all the time, it’s not weird.”

Courfeyrac blinks. “Yeah, you and _Cosette._ ”

Marius isn’t stupid, he knows he’s missing something but his head is just so fucking jammed with fog he can’t be bothered to deal with it. Courfeyrac is biting his lip and looking to the side, he’s conflicted but Marius really just wants to make them both feel better and a bath is just about all he has energy for. He takes Courfeyrac’s hand and drags him along as he gathers together fresh pajamas for himself and a fresh pair of boxer briefs for Courfeyac and his Stich onesie. He throws them all into the dryer and adjusts the settings so that they’ll be ready by the time their bath is over.

Then he leads Courfeyrac into the bathroom and sets two towels on the hooks over the heater so that they’ll get warm too and sets the water running.

“Please share a bath with me?” Marius asks one last time, looking up at Courfeyrac hopefully.

“Fine, yes, of course. I can’t argue with that face.” Courfeyrac replies, a tiny smile playing at the corners of his mouth, but it’s a real smile.

He turns away to get undressed and gets in the tub immediately, scooping up water to get his whole body (including his curls) wet.

Marius takes a minute to look at himself naked in the mirror because he’s supposed to do this every day. As usual a voice that sounds far too much like his Grandfather enters his head, commenting that his Mother was so beautiful, white and blonde and blue eyed and thin, why couldn’t he have turned out more like his Mother? He ignores the voice and focuses on the parts of his body that he _does_ like: he likes his smile and his dimples, he likes his hands, he likes his belly which is squishy and round and nice to pat.

He pats it a couple of times. “I like my tummy.” He says aloud.

“I like it too.” Courfeyrac says. “How’s your body image going?”

Marius had almost forgotten he was here and feels his cheeks heat but he nods anyway. “Well. I’m starting to like my face more and Cosette says I have a cute butt.”

“Cosette is right.” Courfeyrac nods like he’s proclaiming an important truth of the universe.

Marius feels a bit odd as the only one being complimented so he says, “I like your chest.”

Courfeyrac turns his head sharply, apparently surprised. “Really?”

Marius nods, he does. Courfeyrac is muscular and strong yet his touches are so often soft and reassuring; he has hair on his chest but not too much and freckles. Marius has already concluded he has a terrible weakness for freckles.

Courfeyrac stops his train of thought by holding up the bath bomb. “Ready?”

Marius likes their bathtub. It’s large enough for two and the faucet is fixed above the side so Courfeyrac can lean against one end and Marius against the other. He turns off the water and slips in, immediately ducking under the clear water to get his head wet. When he comes up, he takes a second to get comfortable. His and Courfeyrac’s legs are a bit jumbled between them and Courfeyrac’s knees are bent but it’s comfortable. He nods at Courfeyrac and his friend drops the bomb into the water, it instantly fizzes and begins to release bright colors and sweet smelling oils.

Courfeyrac leans out of the tub to grab his phone from his discarded trousers and Marius is about to protest until he sees that he’s simply putting on some music. Mellow strings float out of the speaker and Marius recognizes it as a track from the 2005 Pride and Prejudice. He leans back and closes his eyes but doesn’t fall asleep. He’s still feeling lethargic and disconnected but he’s feeling calmer and more human than he has all day.

He hasn’t had a good grasp on time all day but he knows some time passes, a good amount of time really. Then the water is feeling cold and slightly icky and Courfeyrac is draining the water and handing him a cool, clean flannel to wipe himself down with. They dry off with the warm towels and Marius feels a giddy sort of feeling erupt in his chest. He’s pretty sure it’s just energy but it feels foreign and he welcomes it.

With towels about their waists Marius and Courfeyrac climb through piles of dirty laundry and baskets of clean laundry to get to the dryer. Marius is immensely proud of his foresight because toasty pajamas are exactly what he needs right now. From the large and completely sincere smile on Courfeyrac’s face, clean underwear and his Stitch onesie was exactly what he needed too.

When Courfeyrac pulls his hood over his head it musses his wet hair. Giggling, Marius reaches up to run his fingers through his damp curls, neatening it up a bit.

He nods in satisfaction when he’s done. Courfeyrac’s eyes widen slightly and he dips his head to press a quick kiss to Marius’ cheek.

“Thanks for the bath, babe.” Courfeyrac whispers, leaning his forehead against Marius’ temple.

Marius hums. “Movie?”

“Yeah.”

Marius has no idea where Courfeyrac found _Pete’s Dragon_ dubbed in French on DVD. He’s a bit magical like that.

Courfeyrac leans up against the arm of the couch and Marius cuddles between his legs and against his chest. Marius gets lost in the movie, a world of both real life and traditional animation, where singing comes as easy as breathing, being an orphan on the run leads to finding dragons for a best friend and the deserving get happy endings.

They’re halfway through the movie when Marius finds himself speaking.

“Courfeyrac, what if I wasn’t a boy?”

“What if you weren’t?” Courfeyrac replies, turning a bit so that he’s looking Marius in the face, eyes attentive and accepting.

Marius hadn’t meant to say anything at all. “I’m not a girl!” He says a bit too loudly.

“Though there’s nothing wrong with being a girl.” Courfeyrac pauses the movie.

Marius takes a deep breath. “I’m a boy. But… sometimes I think I’m not a boy or a girl. But only sometimes, it’s not even a lot of the time so it doesn’t really matter. And I only think so, you know what? It’s not important.”

“If it matters to you then in it’s important.” Courfeyrac replies, his words are firm like rock. Marius knows he’s going to cling to them for weeks, maybe even the rest of his life.

“If it matters to me then it’s important.” He repeats.

“Yep.” Courfeyrac wraps his arms lightly around his waist. “Marius, boy or not, I love you. And Cosette loves you. And you have friends and we all care about you. You are a wonderful and special person and that is completely independent of your gender.”

Marius nods. “I need time to think about it some more. Can you… please don’t talk about it with anyone?”

Courfeyrac draws an X over his heart. “I promise. Do you want to finish the movie?”

Marius nods and hits play. As the characters begin to sing again, he feels sleep reach for him with a thousand grasping tentacles, pulling him under. It’s not so terrible though when he can hear Courfeyrac’s heart thumping steadily under his ear.

“I love you, Bastien.” He says around and yawn and feels Courfeyrac’s arms tighten around his waist.

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from Stars and Butterflies by Jean-Yves Thibaudet which is the song they listened to in the bath. Wow, I am so creative. Also, I'm on tumblr: marius-newcoat.tumblr.com


End file.
